Category Archives: Gluten Free Cooking

Whitless Sunday Pie. 7th August

Retford Cemetery to after Main Street Winding Hole

We moved down from the cemetery this morning through West Retford Lock and pulled in just above Retford Town Lock on a few bollards that are there. A boat had been moored along here yesterday, but was nowhere to be seen today. Time to do a top up shop, mostly for ingredients to make a pie today.

Heading to West Retford Lock

I headed to Aldi whilst Mick went to Boots to pick up a prescription. On finding no stewing steak in Aldi I gave Mick a call, the butchers in town came up trumps with a pound of steak and a kidney, if I was going to make a pie it might as well have everything in it. No gluten free beer though but Asda came up trumps with a bottle of GF Speckled Hen.

Last narrow

Lunch was had then we set off. Down our last narrow lock for a bit, hopefully we’ll get to the narrow locks on the Trent and Mersey before too long, fingers crossed there’s still sufficient water! Today we’d see CRT notices saying that as of tomorrow at 10am more locks around Birmingham would be closing due to low water levels. It looks like there are just two routes up into Birmingham left open now, Stourbridge and Lapworth.

First broad lock

I walked on ahead windlass and key in hand. The next lock would be Whit Sunday Pie Lock, the first broad lock, it was half full so required a top up, Oleanna wasn’t too far behind me so the lock was just ready when Mick arrived.

I wonder which Cill line is correct? Once down I handed my windlass over to Mick as it wouldn’t be needed again today and I didn’t fancy carrying it for three miles.

The hedgerows are filled with blackberries, plums, damsons and sloes. Sadly the only damsons and plums that were ripe were windfalls, not many more were within arms reach in the trees. I opted to leave them where they were.

A slight gap for the winding hole

The long line of mooring bollards at Clarborough were chocka block. Five boats nose to tail, two facing towards the Trent, three away. When Mick came past he noted that access to the winding hole had been restricted, good job he didn’t want to turn.

At Narrow Bridge I went up onto the track to see if there were any other items of interest at the campsite. A bus stop and more mirrors and the overture of The Magic Flute could be heard coming from one of the barns near the entrance. I suspect it’s an interesting place to camp.

The next 2 day mooring was available, but it’s proximity to the road a no no for Tilly so I carried on walking to an M on Waterway Routes. I was surprised that no other boat was pulled up here. Views over the fields on both sides of the cut, a wide towpath recently mown, the edge trimmed as well so the grass cutters know it as a mooring.

Bails being bailed up

I had time for a quick chat with Frank, read some blogs whilst I waited for Oleanna to arrive, I’d beaten her by 25 minutes. When she did pull up we found it a little hard to find enough depth, but made do with a foot gap between us and the armco, no need for fenders today!

Oleanna was secured, what3words noted, shore leave rules recited, the doors opened for an afternoon of shore leave. Tilly wasn’t impressed as this was timed perfectly with a cloud burst over head. The stern was rejected, I’d try the bow. I hopped off and as soon as my paws touched the grass they sprang straight back onto the boat. How dare they tie up a wetter than wet outside!

Filled

I browned the steak for the pie, mixing two recipes I’d found, steak and ale, steak and kidney pie. The filling needing to simmer for quite sometime. I then started to make the pastry. However the ambient temperature, a wasp interrupting matters and the new wind up scales all conspired against me keeping the butter cold! The scales went from suggesting I was short by 15 grams of butter to being 90grams short! As I lifted the cubes out from the flour I knew I was going to end up in a seriously sticky mess, no rubbing in resembling breadcrumbs here! The bowl went in the fridge to cool down. Then once the eggs were added the mixture, resembling cake mixture was put in the freezer for an hour, hoping this would help. Thankfully gluten free pastry is more forgiving than that with gluten and you can work it more, but it was a bit weird rolling out partly frozen pastry!

Tasty tasty!

Pie filled and baked, it turned out pretty well considering the afternoon had continued to be problematic. As I cut the pie into portions I realised I’d forgotten to add the chestnut mushrooms! It was very tasty none the less. We of course had to follow it with a slice of cake, all accompanied by a glass of wine, so today the diet has gone out of the window completely! Sod it!!

It’s a lovely mooring this

3 locks, 5 miles, 1 bottle beer, 1 drugs run, 2 drugs on order, 450grams steak, 1 kidney, 1 bag carrots, 2 baking potatoes, 2 splashes of Hendersons, 90 minutes brisk walking, 1 big pan of meatyness, 1 bowl of melted gooeyness, 1 rather good pie for Whit Sunday Pie Lock.

https://what3words.com/sudden.joints.kidney

Two Rendez Vous. 6th August

Ranby Visitor Mooring to Retford Cemetery

A sweep through and some baking to use up some of the blackberries picked yesterday, a recipe I found on line, it suggested if your fruit was really sweet then to reduce the amount of sugar, which I did, all helping to not be too naughty, it also had no fat in it so that was a bonus too. We waited until it was out of the oven and cooling before setting off, me walking ahead.

Sunflower

Oleanna managed to get round the steep bend where we’d come aground a few days ago with ease, maybe the weed boat we’d seen earlier this morning had got rid of the problem for us, hopefully we’d have little or no problem with weed today.

Kingfisher

This stretch runs very close to the A1 for quite a distance, you’d never know it apart from the traffic noise. One house has some lovely sunflowers outside, dark red as well as some very heavy headed standard yellow ones. Interesting weathered tree stumps , a creature I didn’t manage to catch on my camera swimming across the cut and a flash of electric blue from a kingfisher, who allowed me to take a silhouetted photo of it before darting onwards again.

Volunteers volunteering

At Forest Top Lock there was a boat moored just off the top lock landing and the bottom gates were both wide open. Below sat a CRT tug and skip boat the three crew standing around. I wasn’t wanting to speed them up as I was the advance party, there was plenty of time for them to finish their chat and come up the lock whilst Mick arrived. These volunteers have been tasked to move several skip boats up towards Turnerwood for when the canal shuts to replace the lock gates on the leaky lock. The chap at the helm kept saying that they’d leave the lock set for us, that was obvious. Then he was a bit concerned when Mick pulled Oleanna into the lock landing and roped her up so she’d not get in their way, yes we were going to use the lock straight away so he needn’t have worried.

The Mad Cyclists arriving

Above Forest Middle Top Lock we pulled in at the water point to fill up, deal with rubbish and yellow water. We also made use of the time to have some lunch. A phone call came through from our first visitors of the day, a rather garbled message, but they were on their way and would find us along our route somewhere. A boat was now heading to come up the lock, it was already in their favour so we helped them up, then made use of the water to go down, also helping another boat up. They were both going to stop to top up with water before carrying on to make the assisted passage at Worksop tomorrow morning.

Jane hitching a ride

Surprisingly Forest Middle Bottom Lock was empty when I arrived, soon filled and Oleanna was just descending when a dayglow cyclist pulled up alongside and asked how he should put his bike onboard. This was one of our visitors, James, Jane his wife soon followed. I’ve known James since my teenage years in York, he and Jane live near Sheffield and we call them the ‘Mad Cyclists’. Shortly before Mick and I set off on our boating journey eleven years ago, they set off on their own adventure to cycle the full length of South America in nine months.

A posed action shot

Once down the lock we could load their bikes onboard, one in the welldeck the other on the roof. Extra care would be needed whilst passing under trees now, can’t have Titanium Gravel bikes ending up in the Chesterfield Canal.

All aboard

There was time to catch up on news of all the Hall family, a wedding this coming weekend. Hear about the planning of their next cycling trip, three months over Christmas. Only one more lock however to have assistance with before we made our way on towards Retford. We opted to moor a little before the more central moorings by the hospital and cemetery. Train times were checked, bikes removed from their positions on the boat and chained to a post so that we could have a cuppa inside with a slice of Blackberry and Almond cake whilst Tilly inspected the towpath. It’s a bit rubbish here I can’t find my way through the green mesh stuff!

Jane and James ready to head off back to Sheffield on the train

Time for the cyclists to pedal off into the distance to catch their train. Our location was now sent off to more visitors another rendez vous to be had. Time to put on long trousers and freshen up, encourage Tilly home for dingding.

Still no way through!

An hour later Cath and Marc arrived at the hatch. Cath is a Stage Manager who worked on several shows with me at the SJT and The Orange Tree many moons ago. Marc is a wildlife photographer who is currently building up his stock for Christmas fairs.

Marc and Cath

Recently they have got into watching Canal Boat Diaries and been on hire boats, so of course they wanted a guided tour of Oleanna. It wasn’t hard to impress them, modern live aboard boats are very different to those they’ve been on before.

A very nice chicken burger

We headed into town to find somewhere to eat. The Brew Shed had come highly recommended by Dave at the boat club the other week. It certainly smelt good, but sadly wouldn’t have a table free until much later on. So we opted to walk to the market square where there is a Lounge. These have great menus for everyone. A whole sheet of gluten free options and quite a choice for Vegans. We settled down and caught up on news of friends as we’ve not seen each other for around eight years. Mick and I had burgers which were extreamly nice and Marc tucked into a large breakfast, which would keep anyone going for several days.

Oops!

A very lovely evening after a very good afternoon. We waved goodbye to Cath and Marc, popped into Aldi for a pint of milk before returning to Oleanna for a second glass of wine.

4 locks, 5 miles, 1 full water tank, 3 moving boats, 1 load washing, 2 cyclists, 1 tight medium pair, 0.5 blackberry almond cake devoured, 2 pedestrians, 2 guided tours, 2 burgers, 1 giant breakfast, 1 nasi goreng, 3 beers, 1 wine, 1 very lovely day.

https://what3words.com/moves.switch.else

Beaut! 9th July

Doncaster Visitor Moorings

It’s always the same. You set an alarm for early o’clock and just can’t get to sleep. Then add into the mix Doncaster Minster being so close and it’s bells marking EVERY quarter of an hour ALL night! Not the best night’s sleep.

I managed 7 minutes brisk walk to the station and was ready and waiting for my first train of the day to Birmingham New Street, next one on to Banbury. I was glad of reserved seats on both trains and opted to keep the model on my knee, it was safer there than anywhere else.

Waiting for the train

At Banbury Station I had to use telepathy to find my lift. Firstly the drop off zone has been moved due to building works and then it was play hunt the producer. I’d not met Rachel the new producer at Chippy before today, luckily I’d told her to look out for my big blue ikea bag.

At the theatre the green room was filled with a welcoming committee, which was very nice. They were actually waiting for me to cut the chocolate and hazelnut gf cake Paul had made.

A Bake Off topping but was there a missing raspberry?

Plenty of time to set up and enjoy a slice of cake before the final model meeting started. A new lighting designer joined over the Internet, marketing, development, technicians and Gemma the Production Manager made for quite an audience, but thankfully I didn’t get Designers wobble doing scene changes in the model.

Set up and ready

We worked our way through the show, questions and explanations as we went. At the end there were lots of lovely comments, the best was from John the Director saying he thought it’s my ‘best design yet!’

Holly Hocks take over in Chippy

After lunch Gemma and I hid ourselves away in a dressing room to see if we could afford to build it. Three quotes had come in for the build and some figures for the printing. At the moment it seems we can afford it without having to cut elements and Gemma had taken on board my suggestions about painting and parts of the build. I’ll be kept occupied, but hopefully not as busy as in previous years.

Waiting in Banbury for my direct train home

I got a lift back to the station with Paul, his wife Helen and Jack their son. Mick had a pizza ready to go in the oven for when I got home along with a glass of wine as my goal of leaving the majority of the model box with other people had come off. A very good day all round.

A small box of props and a couple of things and my technical drawings

Now if you fancy coming to see the show get your tickets booked before the end of this month as the prices have been held at last year’s prices.

Planning things

Meanwhile in Doncaster Mick has spent time in the engine bay, planning the installation of some Victron bits which will make the charging of our bully boy batteries more efficient.

Oleanna was passed by Dutch Barge Pheonix owners of NB Honky Tonk whom we’d met at Lemonroyd a month ago. Hopefully we’ll get chance to say hello if our paths cross in the next few days.

A White Rabbit pizza with extras

0 locks, 0 miles, 3 trains, 1 big thumbs up, 1 addition to make, 1 alteration to make, 1 Le to add, 1 yummy cake, 1 bip of a horn, 2 gizmos added, 1 bored cat, 2nd blog post written on my phone on the train home, 1 designer thinking she deserves a glass of wine when she gets home!

1 designer got her glass of wine, followed by a second one.

What Cake?! 20th May

Aire and Calder Navigation

The butter had been left out of the fridge overnight, but still wasn’t suitablely soft for baking. I sliced it thinly, put it in a mixing bowl, then moved it out onto the hatch at the stern, here it got suitably soft very quickly as the sun got going. Sugar, eggs, lemon zest then lots of ground almonds added, it was baked, browning a little too quickly but covered in foil it did it’s thing. Lemon juice added once out of the oven, it was left to cool in the tin. The easiest bit of secret baking I’ve done in years, helped enormously that Mick was in Scarborough.

The roofers started to tidy up, moving all the old slates off the roof by hand, their bucket and rope in the van which was still being mended. Later in the day I was sent a photo with fresh new tiles covering part of the roof, there had been three of them today so they were cracking on. Good job as rain is forecast for the weekend.

Here on Oleanna, I waited to hear back from John in Chippy. No news came through all day. Oh well, I decided to do a mock up of the cyc , this is a cloth that hangs up stage, normally covering where we store all the props and bits of scenery by the back wall. Once I’d put things together I realised that my horizon was far too high, I’ll need to add more sky, but at least it will give an idea in the white card model.

Mocked up cyc

Up to Lidl for some asparagus for this evenings birthday barbecue. The roofers having finished for the day around 3pm meant Mick could be on a train back for the evening arriving at 6pm. On my walk back down the hill to the canal there was a lot of stationary traffic. The cause, a Luton van that had got itself squished by the curve of the railway bridge! I really hoped this wouldn’t cause problems with the trains and delay Mick’s return.

Ooops!

More stoppage notices regarding low levels on the canals. The Ripon Canal which is fed by the River Skell will be closing at the top end, this will hopefully help maintain levels at the top and without any rainfall the EA are likely to ask C&RT to stop abstraction from the river, so we suspect the canal will soon be closed from Oxclose Lock. We’d been wanting to head up the River Ouse and onto the Ripon Canal, but that is now likely to be another destination we’re unable to reach this year.

Smokey

The very sunny afternoon sadly clouded over, but when Mick arrived back at Oleanna we decided to still go ahead with our planned birthday barbecue, the first barbecue of the year. The charcoal was lit and left to get itself ready as the presents came out.

Last week Mick had been so excited at the arrival of a parcel for me at the house that I decided to wrap up the contents and give them to him. Well what would he do with 100 10A scalpel blades, but give them to me! Next followed a familiar shaped present, this was a chocolate orange which has now been gifted at Christmas, Easter and now birthday. The proper presents followed. A Curlew t-shirt from Tilly and a smart new fleece from me, both went down well.

Curlew!

Asparagus for starters, followed by pork steaks and veg/halloumi kebabs, washed down with a couple of glasses of wine each whilst sat out on the towpath, jumpers required but not too chilly thankfully.

Once tidied up we retired indoors for cake and blowing out of candles. This took several attempts from Mick, it must be his great age! We’ve quite a bit left over to keep us going for a few more days.

A later start to his birthday celebrations than normal, but we got there in the end.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 trains, 0.3 roof re-tiled, 1000 old tiles carried down ladders, 1000 new tiles carried up, 1 sheet of insulation board to find a use for, 1 cyc, 1 ECG, 3.11 miles walked, 22 minutes briskly, 12 candles, 1 bored cat, 15 spears asparagus, 2 pork steaks, 4 kebabs, 4 glasses wine, 1 Happy Birthday to Mick.

6000! 11th May

Aire and Calder Navigation

The wrong type of rain, moving kitchens, the one perfect rose, 4 clicks and it being a 2 slice Sunday were all subjects discussed this morning. I’d already had two slices of toast with my breakfast, bacon a serious treat this year nestled next to them.

Yum!

The Geraghty zoom had also been a try out to check if online meetings this week would be any good. Well I think we got away with it, but that wasn’t really good enough, especially when the IT department would be over an hour away by train! The other factor for moving was the large hole in the bank close by our stern and an inquisitive cat! We most probably moor close to such things all the time, but just knowing of its existence made us want to move up some.

Mick checked the EE coverage, not too far away it improved, he went for a bike ride, there was space, we’d move up.

I was about to push off when Mick reminded me we needed to deal with the yellow water tank today. Once that was done we waited for an ex-hire boat to come past, we’d be sharing the next lock with them. As we pootled along Oleanna’s engine hours clicked over to 6000!

Blue skies and anglers

The lady hopped off with windlass in hand, she won’t be needing that until they get to Leeds, she came back for a Key of Power. I chatted to the chap, the usual things, where have you come from, where you going?

They’d been in Sheffield for 18 months, been to York and got stuck in the floods (that must have been a few months ago) and were now aiming for Manchester. They weren’t aware of the immanent closure of the Leeds Liverpool Canal, currently planned to close on the 27th May, lock flights padlocked and locks ashed up. He thought if they were already on the canal then CRT would let them off the other end. Well, no, closed, means closed!

6,000 engine hours!

In the lock he was asking Mick how long it would take to get to the bottom of Wigan, 50 hours to my reckoning. So it’s doable if you don’t get stuck on the bottom or have to go to work four days a week as the chap does! We suggested he signs up for CRT stoppage notices.

We topped up the water tank and pootled on a little further before winding and mooring up. Plenty to keep Tilly occupied here so long as there’s not too many woofers and humans wanting to give me a stroke. Sorry to the passers-by who instead of a head nudge got a very aggressive HISS!

Strutting the towpath

Summer clothes were dug out from under the bed, serious winter jumpers and jeans that no longer fit me got tucked away. The drawing board came out from it’s slot, not sure I’ll get to use it in the next few days, but you never know and it’s hard for one person to get out.

Some more reference pictures were put together. Art Nouveau, roses, tents.

Mick headed off mid afternoon to catch the train back to Scarborough, roofing works starting in the morning.

To use up some butter beans left over from a warm chicken salad we had the other day I put together a Yaxni. I’d not heard of it before, a Greek potato stew. My version will definitely be made again and I’ve got enough left over for another day. Click the photo for the recipe.

Pip’s Yaxni

1 lock, 6000 engine hours, 1 boat now on a mission, 1 boat settling down for a while to work, 1 cat, 82 trees, 288 pictures, 1 improved internet, 1 worse TV signal, 1 PA check in, 1 teams meeting to Scarborough, 1000 paces hobbled, 0 brisk minutes, 2 legs having a rest, pair 67 cast on.

The Big Ship Sails. 7th May

Spicers Auctioneers to Sykehouse Junction, New Junction Canal

Was it a cat last night or the ghost of one?

With the washing drawer now empty and socks and pants fully dried in the tumble drier we could move on. First to the water point to fill with clean water, empty the yellow and put our first food waste into the new bins. A bag of coal was also purchased from the marina.

As I sat waiting for the tank to fill I watched social media following the campaign boats now out on the River Thames. So many boats had moored at Limehouse Basin last night there were quite a few lockings required. Once outside the Houses of Parliament the boats winded and stemmed the tide waiting for 11am when all 27 boats sounded their horns. King Charles went past them on an Uber Boat, he was there to look at the new super sewer really. They then all headed back down stream to West India Dock where they all fitted into the one lock to get off the tidal waters.

Boats all gathered in Limehouse Basin ready for the off

We winded again and headed down to Viking Marina service mooring. Here we pulled alongside NB Felix that was having some work done by Alastair to it’s gear box. The diesel tank was topped up, not quite to the top, when it reached 100 litres the pump stopped automatically, 89p a litre. We were actually a day early tomorrow the price will go down to 82p with the next delivery. A bottle of gas was manhandled along the gunnels to the bow, we were all topped up and ready to go again.

A sailing ship

Ahead in the docks were a couple of new boats. One looked a touch strange and a bit too tall! Amadeus Saffir is a modern boat, built last year, with a wind-assist system, basically it has sails to help reduce it’s fuel consumption further than it’s diesel-electric propulsion can. An interesting boat.

Off Roader about to pass Oleanna

Time to head off. I hitched a ride to Rawcliffe where I jumped off behind Syntan to walk the remainder of the way to Sykehouse Junction and the New Junction Canal. Mick headed off at usual cruising speed along these deep wide waterways, far quicker than I could walk, so he soon vanished into the distance after passing Off Roader that was on it’s return trip from Leeds. As it approached the anglers all shouted to each other to grab their keep nets, otherwise their catch would be dragged away from them as the big boat passed.

Not much grass growing

The area where the bank has been mended seriously needs a good water to help the grass grow. A nice aspect for a mooring, just a shame the M18 was audible and the cooling towers of Drax were just out of view.

As I approached the houses by Beaver Bridge a security system sprung into action. A loud BEEP then the camera with two flashing white lights followed my every move along the towpath. I wonder whether it caught me pausing for a quite a while at the bridge.

Look at these beauties

Here a pair of (I think) juvenile Peacocks were just as interested in me as I was them. Where had they come from? We’ve passed a barge with a peacock on it’s roof before at Rawcliffe and there is a peacock farm in Holme on Spalding Moor, but surely that’s too far away for them to have escaped from. All the same they kept me captivated for quite a while.

Chocka block

A big fishing match was taking place at the reservoir, anglers crammed in next to each other. As I turned onto the New Junction Mick messaged me saying Tilly was coming to find me. Well I was obviously too scary and she ran away back to Oleanna despite me calling for her. Hey ho! She did go back out and enjoyed much of her four hours, in fact she needed quite a bit of encouragement to come home!

I’d planned to go through the panto script again today making lists, but emails came through from John (writer/director) with various notes about the show and then a long list of people who have applied to be props maker this year. Sadly the wonderful Jo can’t give enough time to the show anymore, I knew this was likely as we’d chatted last year, so I wasn’t surprised. So now I need to go through CVs to see who should be considered. There is one name I know in the pile, but would they be the best person for the job?

This evening I’ve tried out a new gluten free pasta recipe, I made up a lasagne which we haven’t had for ages. A third each instead of half proved to be ample portions, one third left over for a working girl when she’s on her own.

0 locks, 6.6 miles, 2 winds, 1 left, 25kg coal, 1 full water tank, 1 empty wee tank, 100 litres diesel, 1 gas bottle, 0 Alfie, 4.28 miles walked, 71 minutes briskly, 2 sails, 6 prop makers, 3 emails, 0 notes, 4 hours shore leave, no you can’t give this mooring yet another stamp of approval Tilly!

https://what3words.com/piano.hoping.efficient

Everybody Blow. 25th April

New Walk, York.

In between preparation for the party this evening I took to the river bank for my walk. Down stream under Millennium Bridge, then having to go a little in land to get round York Motor Boat Club. Distances walked when I was a teenager or in my early twenties seemed to be just that little bit too far, today they didn’t seem to be quite far enough!

St Oswald’s Church

At the bottom of St Oswald Road the old church sits, converted into a house whilst I was at primary school, across the way a track leads onto Fulford Ings and to the University Rowing Club. I wondered how boggy the Ings would be today and walked down to have a look. There’s a temporary track across the fields where the footpath sits, maybe drainage improvements, maybe a new footpath?

Just returning to Oleanna via Fulford Road wasn’t going to be far enough, so I opted to walk up towards the University. I then forgot that the Imphal Barracks would block my way so had to detour further out of town , rediscovering the cross country route from my school days. I suspect I covered it far quicker today than I did when 15! Was that Grandad’s house peeking above the University and trees? Maybe, certainly one of his neighbours. Then back to Fulford Road across Walmgate Stray an area I didn’t know existed until today.

Daddy Fatso joined us

Mid afternoon we put on our party clothes and walked up to Fishergate to the London Leckenby’s flat, balloons visible through the skylights and aromas of roasting pork wafting down the street. Yesterday I’d printed out various photos of Dad so that he could join us for his 100th birthday party.

Drinks and tales, nibbles and more drinks. Roast pork, salad, potatoes and Yorkshire puddings, with greasy bottoms. Andrew had put together a spotify play list of Dad’s records, the occasional track reminding us of more which were found and added to the playlist. Beatles, Burt Bacharach, The Seekers, Slade, Ravel’s Bolero, John Williams, Tom Rush, Cat Stevens, Scaffold, The Communards, to name just a very few, Oh Shirley Bassey sneaked in there with a track for Mum.

Pip, Mick, Jac, Andrew and Josh

A Raspberry Frangipane Tart was baked and rested for pudding. Twelve candles added to the top, no room for 100. But who would blow them out? We all did together.

Happy Birthday Fatso!

This was followed by a game of York Monopoly. Bars (as in Bar Walls) rather than stations and York Minster and the Shambles taking the place of Mayfair and Park Lane. Some family deals went on, half rent! Thank goodness there is now a Mr Monopoly dice which speeds the game up, Mick having two full sets with hotels, it was obvious who was going to win, Mr Big Money, he may as well have become the banker! He finally bankrupted us all by midnight.

A lovely evening remembering Daddy Fatso in true Leckenby style, other than the man himself, the only thing missing was a vase!

Blow!

0 locks, 0 miles, 7am rowers again, 4.43 miles walked, 56 minutes briskly, 2 many calories, 2 many old songs, 0 Boogie Wonderland, 0.75 of a pig, 2kg potatoes, 1 huge salad, 1 frangipane tart, 1 Mr Money Bags, Happy 100th Birthday !

Arrivals. 24th April

New Walk, York

New Walk

Awake again at 7am with the University rowers. A while later a couple of sculls came down from York Rowing club, the lady asking her friend about boats moored along this stretch. There are only two of us, the other up by the Foss which we’ve seen elsewhere , it does have the look as if it might be staying for a while. Her friend said boats moor up for a couple of days and then move on. She said something about how there obviously wasn’t any enforcement. Well there are no signs to say we can’t moor here or back by the Foss, we’re not exactly in anyones way. Well maybe the trip boats are winding a little bit sooner than they were a week ago, but only by a hundred yards. So we don’t have a problem with it and she shouldn’t either.

Millennium Bridge

A slow morning. I wanted to print off some things , so Mick left me to it and he went to have a look at the station works. Once I’d finished off what I was doing I took a walk along New Walk to Millenium Bridge, crossed over and walked back up the other side of the river past Rowntrees Park. There is a caravan site here and motorhomes were arriving in a steady stream.

Interesting cars by the lock

Some preparation for tomorrows party, I’m in charge of pudding so made a batch of sweat pastry from a new recipe book I got at Christmas. I’d got so far with it when there were Hellos from outside. Andrew and Josh had arrived for the weekend, having driven up from London in a small van bringing the old family dining table with them for the flat in Fishergate. They’d been thinking of swapping the flats existing table for a while as it wasn’t really large enough for six. So a return to York for the table Dad had made and that we grew up with was perfect especially for this weekend. We had chats and a cuppa, then they headed off to await a Tesco delivery followed by Jac who’d be arriving later by train.

Pastry finished and a batch of what looked like nice rosemary crackers, however they turned out to be a little disappointing, a river bank hair cut for Mick.

Time to finish my walking for the day, up a snicket between houses that I hadn’t noticed before, checked the opening times at Alligator, a wholefood shop that’s been there since the 70’s, then walked down streets where school friends used to live back towards the river bank. Sadly a great fish and chip shop has gone, time your arrival close to closing and you’d get double helpings. The Wellington Pub is awaiting new management to run it, a lovely little pub. I was tempted but I couldn’t spot the bar billiards table that used to reside in the side room, so that was a deal breaker.

This outside is getting boring now!

In flotilla news, word is that Denham Deep Lock should be open again on Saturday afternoon. We’ve got our fingers crossed for all the boats heading to Cavalcade and the Campaign Cruise to the Houses of Parliament.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 mardy rower, 3.2 miles walked, 56 minutes briskly, 1 batch pastry, 24 crackers, 5 tinged, 1 brother, 1 nephew, 11 pictures, pair 65 cast on.

All Nice And Spicy. 18th April

West Haddlesey to Burn Bridge

Showers. Tilly was offered some shore leave, which she took up for a while before retreating inside. I’m a fair weather cat and I like it like that in my older years. Thankfully the showers petered off, not that they’d been very soggy.

We’d toyed with staying put for the day, but our options for shopping were just about none existent and if we left it too long before heading into Selby then it would be Easter Sunday with just about all shops closed. Mick spotted a Tesco Express near to Burn Bridge so that was our aim for today.

Pushing off at West Haddlesey

I opted to walk, at about 3 miles it would be a good way of ticking off the brisk minutes. We both suspected that I’d beat Oleanna as the Selby Canal is really quite shallow, so slow cruising. It also gave me chance to check out the footpath along the first stretch.

Footpaths and towpaths

A big sign showed lots of local walks and that the towpath continued to Tankards Bridge, information already passed on to Paul at Waterway Routes. The footpath was good and obviously well used. I kept my pace up and kept just in front of Oleanna with enough time to pause to take photos.

Paperhouse Bridge with the tunnels/culverts/aqueducts either side

Yesterday I’d crossed Paperhouse Bridge where two round areas sit alongside the canal. Our maps suggest that the canal passes over these on aqueducts, even though they look just a bit like fancy side ponds. But information from the big notice says they have a tunnel, culvert between the two of them. These were designed by William Jessop to collect water and help stop the canal from getting flooded. There were originally four such tunnels/culverts/aqueducts, one has since been filled in.

They won’t budge!

I paused by the high wall mooring. Mick rang. As it was available, should we stop here for the day? Plan changed, he reversed Oleanna back to attempt to moor. There seemed to be quite a few branches in the way. He got the stern in and then with the boat hook managed to pick a branch out. However there were more branches and these were stubborn to shift. Back onboard to try from there, it wasn’t easy. I helped by staring at the branches. But that didn’t even help. After quite a bit of revving we decided to give up and continue to our original mooring.

On we plodded to Burn Bridge. Mick pulled in at the end furthest away from the busy road, under the willow tree. We’ve been here before several times and despite the road it’s a nice mooring. Had something changed? There seemed to be more grass on the bank. The stern came in, but when trying to pull Oleanna in she stopped just that little bit too far out to be able to comfortably step across. The bottom was far too close to the top! We tried again, nope! Not wanting to go any further, or to try mooring nearer the bridge we opted to bring the stern in and have the bow sticking out, after all we’ve not seen a moving boat for a couple of days and we’d still not be blocking the navigation.

Burn Bridge Willow tree

Some mixing and stirring was required by Tilly, some festive baking needed despite watching what is eaten at the moment. This was left to rise whilst we walked to Tescos for a few essentials, we’ll do a bigger shop in Selby tomorrow.

Whilst I added spices and fruit to the mix, Mick chaperoned Tilly’s shore leave. We knew she’d be far more interested in the friendly cover at our end of the mooring, but every now and again she’ll do something unexpected, if that involved the road that would be very bad indeed. I took over once the buns were proving again.

Tree!!!

Mick checked the stoppage notices. The moorings at Burn Bridge have been closed since June last year.

Please be advised that some moorings at Burn are currently unavailable due to ongoing safety renovations. The original footboards, planks, and structure had deteriorated beyond repair and are being replaced along the original banking. Alternative moorings are available at Haddlesey, and Gateforth landing. The notice stopped on 14th April.

The mooring is a quarter of what it used to be

Looking back at old photos, it looks as if they have removed and not replaced the original footboards. This extra few feet may have meant having enough water to get into the side and now it is far too shallow. We’ll have a go at pulling in further along in the morning to see if it’s all too shallow for us.

Hot paw buns with their marzipan prints

All was baked and ready to be a pudding after our main course this evening. We can’t have Easter without Hot Paw Buns! The boat smells all nice and spicy now.

The real thing

The flotilla to London has had quite a few problems today, failing hydraulics on one boat and a second morse control cable has broken. RCR are on their way to fix it tomorrow. Petition Link.

More socks

0 locks, 2.8 miles, 3 tunnels, 1 towpath, 2 attempts to moor, 2 many branches, 1 willow tree trimmed, 1 very jaunty angle, 5 bananas, 1 pot humous, 130 grams cranberries, 12 Hot Paw Buns, 1 willow climbed three times, 2 pairs of socks wrapped and ready to send.

https://what3words.com/backyards.comical.grazes

Vampire Not Required. 22nd March

Sykehouse Junction to the Site of Smallhedge Swing Bridge

An early alarm, well we were both awake before it went off. Tea in bed and hopefully awake enough to have a telephone consultation with a GP anytime between 07:30 and 09:30. My phone rang from a Hull phone number at 08:20. This year I seem to have been giving the NHS a lot of my blood and this was a follow up appointment to discus the latest results. The previous results had prompted questions about iron levels and was there any history of iron overload in my family! Thankfully today various levels had returned to normal so I must have had what they call a ‘sub-clinical infection’. I had the choice of another blood test in 2 weeks or 8 weeks to check on one enzyme that was still a bit wonky. I was praised on my walking and loosing of weight and to keep it up. He also said he could only tell me with certainty what I didn’t have. Have to say this GP was good, it didn’t feel like he was in a rush and was happy for me to ask questions.

Coming over the Went Aqueduct

My biggest worry had been that if I did have iron overload then the usual treatment involves donating blood. If you normally donate blood I believe you can only do this around every three months, well this treatment would have involved giving blood at least once a fortnight, maybe once a week! So I’m very relieved that I don’t need to cruise with a vampire close to hand! Reading back on the notes the GP made, I have been noted as living on a longboat, therefore we are Vikings!

Tilly was allowed morning shore leave. It’s amazing how different she is on the boat compared to the house. When she came in she requested this mooring should be given a stamp of approval, friends had been found.

Only a short distance to cruise today. I opted to walk to operate the bridges whilst Mick brought Oleanna behind, got to keep walking to fend off the need for vampires!

Lift!

The first bridge is a lift bridge, only one vehicle held up. The second a swing bridge, another car and a cyclist held up here. I’d already spotted that the light at the lock was on red not amber, there was a lock keeper on duty, so once Oleanna was through the bridge I hopped back on board.

Two down and one to go up

The traffic light was now showing red and green, the lock was being prepared for us. On closer inspection it also contained two downhill boats. We trod water waiting for the red light to go out leaving just green. Today the Lockie had a helper. He took our rope wrapped it round a bollard three times and then couldn’t take up the slack. Once this was sorted he then passed the rope around a railing by the car park, totally unnecessary but it made him feel useful.

Very helpful if not so good with ropes

The Lockie checked which way we’d be going and if we knew about certain stoppages. There’s a pontoon near Long Sandal Lock which is being used whilst the flood defences are being worked on, then at Eastward Lock up towards Sheffield there is an electrical problem. Neither of these would affect us, we also mentioned the stoppage at Thorne Lock, he didn’t know about that one.

There’s just so much to do here

Up the lock and on to where we’ve moored before, just short of where there used to be another swing bridge. My long handled mini roller pole came in handy for passing chains round the bar on the armco, saving getting soggy knees. Once tied up Tilly the thug was let loose. The bank down from the canal is an ideal friendly spot. She was kept busy for much of the afternoon.

It’s High Street is 8 miles long!

Thankfully I managed to find a gap in weather for a walk to top up my minutes and steps. Back to the lock, over the bridge and on through fields to Sykehouse village. Here I came across a campsite at the back of the pub, tried to have a look in the church but the door was locked, checked the village sign and in all only walked about 100 yards of the longest village in Yorkshire before returning to the canal on a different footpath.

It may be deep and wide, but you still leave a wake

As I’d set out there had been a dutch barge approaching the low side of the lock, on my return I could hear gates or the bridge being closed. it had taken them around half an hour if not more to get through the lock. I crossed over the bridge and walked back to Oleanna only just being overtaken by the none slowing down barge before I got back. I think the chap needs a touch more practice at the wheel to save his crew from having to stand around waiting for twenty minutes to be picked up.

Inside Oleanna the big box needed getting rid of. It was useful for transporting another box, but really it was far FAR too big for it’s purpose, it would be handy to have a more suitably sized box. I spent the next hour tailoring it for both it’s contents and the space I could allow it. Job done it fitted snuggly in my clothes cupboard.

So what’s in the box? I might leave that for another time.

Suet crust with chicken, leek and mushrooms

This evening we celebrated my good appointment with the GP by blowing my new diet and having homemade Teviot chicken and leek pies. The pastry crust made with gluten free vegetable suit. I’m going to have to do a lot of walking to work that one off!

1 lock, 1.7 miles, 3 bridges, 2 cars held up, 1 cyclist held up, 2 outsides, 1 cat grounded to save the wild life, 0 vampires, 1 box reduction for another box, 4.65 miles walked, 75 minutes brisky, 2 Mrs Tilly stamps of approval, 2 indulgent pies.

https://what3words.com/songs.talkative.reddish